Snowcrash

Members
  • Content

    40
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Community Reputation

0 Neutral

Gear

  • Main Canopy Size
    120
  • Main Canopy Other
    Alti-2 N3
  • Reserve Canopy Size
    113
  • Reserve Canopy Other
    Parasport Z1
  • AAD
    Cypres 2

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    VDZ
  • License
    D
  • License Number
    24662
  • Licensing Organization
    SFF
  • Number of Jumps
    437
  • Tunnel Hours
    11
  • Years in Sport
    3
  • First Choice Discipline
    Formation Skydiving
  • First Choice Discipline Jump Total
    300
  • Second Choice Discipline
    BASE Jumping
  • Second Choice Discipline Jump Total
    31
  1. Well... In my case I hope it was actaully the last one. Tried a Lightning, didn't dare hold the fronts low enough, got no flare out of it, was an idiot, broke my wrist. Yeah, yeah. Shit happens.
  2. Having done a lot of FS4 jumps the last two years I've realized just how much I rely on my audible to keep track of altitude. Just like you mentioned yourself, it does happen that the whole group gets so caught up in what they're doing that you go past break-off, no one noticing. I decided to get a second audible as back up. Make sure you remember to change both of them when planning your dives though. Having four, five or six alarms going off at different altitudes is a bit more information than at least my brain can handle
  3. I don't know about risers, but toggles you could get from any of the BASE gear manufacturers; Apex, Adrenaline et al.
  4. I contacted Tokyo Skydiving Club a couple of years ago on [email protected]. They were super friendly, helping out with all the hoops you need to jump through to go skydiving in Japan. IIRC you need to be part of their national association and have local insurance. They offered to fill in all the papers and everything. The only thing I had to do was go to a local post office once in Japan to pay for the insurance. I never ended up going though so I couldn't say anything about the DZ as such. They even offered to pick me up from the train, so I'm sure the atmosphere has to be great.
  5. Awesome feeling, enjoy! If you miss it later on you can always start doing sketchy low BASE jumps - brings the adrenaline right back up again.
  6. TL;DR That feeling of nervous excitement in my stomach from the thought of jumping out of an airplane. Had it before I signed up, still do. ...and to make a long story long. I grew up next to a small airfield, seeing gliders and small propeller planes in the sky every summer. It was mesmerizing. Skip forward 20 years, I finally have the job and the time to get a glider license. I liked it and flew for a couple of years, but towards the end of the third summer I was having to realize that I was flying less and less and wasn't really able to keep current. Among the pilots there was always talk of the crazies that would leave the perfectly good airplane. I figured, crazy yes, but it does seem kinda exiting too doesn’t it? So, as sort of compensation for having to give up the pilot’s license I decided I'd sign up for an AFF program; do the course, make the jumps and that would be that. Finished. I’d have another license to tick off the bucket list, no need to make any more jumps. Riiight… I sent an email to the closest DZ, but it was August and the last course turned out to be full. I told myself ok and started getting over the sour feeling of giving up the glider license. Four months later, I'm on a tram on my way home from having a few to many beers with friends and I see I have an email from the girl that handled the reservations for the FJC's at the DZ, saying that, if I was still interested, reservations for next year's courses were open. Enter that lovely feeling in my stomach. There was like a hook that caught my spine and it’s still there. I didn’t want to do it, I had to! I was able to hold of making my reservation... until the morning after. Spent all the money I’d saved up for an expensive full format DSLR in one blink. I remember posting on facebook that "my girlfriend will probably kill me for this, but I'm going skydiving come spring". She nearly did. Three years later I'm a jumpmaster, doing post-AFF jumps with students. I'll probably hold FJC's myself next year and who knows what’s after that.
  7. A bit off topic, but if you are ever in northern Europe, make sure you stopp by Voss (Norway) and Näsinge (Sweden). Both are said to be among the world's most beautiful.
  8. It's taken months, hours and hours of what could have been productive time at work and here I am, at the end of 60 pages of fantastic stories. I'mma give this thread a shameless bump. There is just far too much gold in here for it to be stuck dusting over on page 3. Hopefully the statute of limtations will have run out on some more of Twardo's stories. Also, really sorry if I got the hopes up of anyone seeing this thread back in red at the top of page 1. Fingers crossed someone will add some more scary stories!
  9. Wow, here I was thinking I was pushing it jumping a Sabre2 at 1.5 after only 400 jumps... Does anyone know what happened to our SoFPiDaRF candidate? Did his femurs make it through 2015? Is he sub-100 yet or is he too busy doing gainers from the bridge?
  10. A Silhouette might also do the trick. It's the same sort of hybrid design as the Pulse. Flat glide, good easy to pack first canopy. It will recover very quickly after a turn though, so be sure to give it a second or two to pick up speed again. Otherwise you might stall one side of the canopy when you initiate the next turn. Could give you an interesting perspective on the world if you're down low... Other than that I'd say it's a great beginners canopy.
  11. Maybe you could ask someone else to do 5 pack jobs or so in a row for you (perhaps you could trade or something) to see if it makes a difference? Not that it would give 100% certainty, but if you get consistently good openings on those jumps, then you've most likely narrowed it down to packing technique (or vice versa).
  12. I've got Stiletto 135 serial no. 10, 23 years old. Recently re-lined and still ok. It does lack a bit of oomph in the flair, but it sure is easy to pack... I mostly jump a 10 year old Sabre 2 though.
  13. What size? This thread has been started with Hornet 170. You can expect a fairly short recovery from canopies that big. This was in reference to the OP's Hornet 170. Right you are that size has a big impact on the recovery arc. In my (admittedly rather limited) experience canopy type characteristics still have a significant impact though. Compared to the Sabre2's I've jumped the Silhouette damn near stalled itself from auto-flare after a hard turn...
  14. Could anyone say what the recovery arc is like on a Hornet? My understanding is that this is more common on canopies with shorter recovery arc, no? I managed to do a one sided stall after practicing flares on a Silhouette 190 (which has a very short recover arc). Luckily no line twists but it sure was a quick drop from 1500 to 1000 feet... "No shit, there I was..."
  15. I was super happy to have an old second hand Optima II replaced this summer, but, yeah I can agree that they aren't the best on the communications front. They could definitely improve there, but if I have to chose I prefer a brand new Optima.